If This Isn't Incentive Enough To Play Well....Don't Know What Is

If anyone caught the Jackie McMullen interview on Around the Horn yesterday; when interviewing Celtics players, they were relieved that they did not have to play against the Cavaliers defense anymore. The Celtics looked fresh out there because the Pistons allowed them to get any shot they wanted and tthe Celts were surprised how easy it was for them to score on the Pistons.

Well it sounds to me that the proverbial chip has been placed right back on the Pistons shoulder. Hopefully they heard the interview and will take this as a challenge and develop that hunter/hunted mentality.

If anyone caught the Jackie McMullen interview on Around the Horn yesterday; when interviewing Celtics players, they were relieved that they did not have to play against the Cavaliers defense anymore. The Celtics looked fresh out there because the Pistons allowed them to get any shot they wanted and tthe Celts were surprised how easy it was for them to score on the Pistons.

Well it sounds to me that the proverbial chip has been placed right back on the Pistons shoulder. Hopefully they heard the interview and will take this as a challenge and develop that hunter/hunted mentality.

So there you have it. The Celtics think the Pistons are soft.

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Yes Army I saw that and posted her quotes yesterday. One of the other guys >Plaskche said that the Pistons took only 15% of their shots within 10 feet of the hoop witch resulted in only 22 points in the paint. Jackie even said that "the Pistons are afraid to go the basket."

Well I don't know bout you but dem-fightin-words. You are right this video should have been shown yesterday to the team and today right before the game starts....

You open the lane up with perimeter shots, or at least the threat of making them. This is a fundamental basketball fact.

This should have been quite evident in round 2 when LeBron was shut down after his jumper failed to fall time and time again.

It wasn't because he was injured, and it wasn't because Bostons D was that good. He wasn't hitting his jumpers and it let them play him for the drive every play.

Jordan wasn't Jordan until he expanded his range and started knocking down perimeter shots.

Kobe isn't Kobe on nights when his shot doesn't fall.

I'm all for the "take it to the hole" committee but it gets kind of ridiculous when fans here assume we can just go dashing into the paint on KG and Co. over and over again when they are sitting there packing the lane and daring us to make jumpers.

You'll have a hard time dunking on a High School squad that is clustered around the rim giving up anything that isn't in the painted area.

One thing Mike Woodson told his team in round one is that they couldn't be afraid to shoot the ball when they were passed to.
His reasoning behind this was that the Celtics defense was so good that if an open shot presented itself they had to take it right away, as another open shot was unlikely to present itself again in that possession.

Part of the open shot theory is based on the guard driven, half court offense we use.

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No, it's part of basketball and playing against a good defensive team.

Jeff Van Gundy said the same thing last night with about 5-6 minutes to go in the second quarter. He was referring to the Celtics (hardly a guard driven offense) and he also said Celtics players can't pass up open shots because there's a great chance they won't see another one in that possession against a good defensive team like Detroit.